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The Albany Movement
McCree Harris was one of the original board members of the Albany Civil Rights Movement. She was a teacher at her old high school, Monroe High School when she joined. Harris joined the board against the advisement of the superintendent of schools, who told her joining would result in her arrest and subsequent loss of a teaching job. Despite this, she was able to contribute a considerable amount to the movement, and she participated in civil rights marches and evaluations of public facilities. These evaluations weren’t always without resistance. Harris herself gave an account of one such event where a man threw a hot drink on her while she did not retaliate. Harris told of the demanding nature of this work. Afterwards, the stress and wear caught up with her, and she had to take nearly an entire semester off work. Despite this, she retained a strong loyalty to her school and concern for her students. Known to them as “Teach”, she valued them beyond measure. In a personal statement, Harris said, “My main goal in the (Albany Civil Rights) Movement was to raise the educational status of black youth in our community.” Her work and accomplishments reflect this, and in 1999, the Black Women Community Leader Party named her the National Community Leader of the Year. But her Civil Rights work wasn’t limited to Albany, Georgia. In 1964, she followed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to St. Augustine, Florida, in an attempt to end segregation at the Munson Motor Hotel.

Democratic Party Involvement
Harris worked as an advisor to several members of the Democratic Party in Albany, including John White and former Mayor Paul Keenan, who recalled her as “a valuable personal friend and a valuable citizen." Harris was his consultant during Albany’s flood of 1994. After the flood, many black citizens of Albany accused the city of purposely diverting floodwater away from wealthy white families and towards their neighborhoods, creating more racial tension. Harris advised Keenan on the difficult task of admitting the greater property damage to black homes while denying any sort of manipulation by the government.